


A Dashing Knight in a Leather Jacket

by WhiteravenGreywolf



Series: If I stay [19]
Category: Captain Marvel (2019)
Genre: Carol the knight in a leather jacket, Expect some mysoginy but not too much, F/F, First Meetings, Flashback, Trip Down Memory Lane
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-30
Updated: 2019-03-30
Packaged: 2019-12-26 17:22:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18286823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhiteravenGreywolf/pseuds/WhiteravenGreywolf
Summary: Carol and Maria are back at the Air Force Academy for Monica's graduation. Some memories of her time at the Academy come back to Carol.





	A Dashing Knight in a Leather Jacket

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! First, a reminder that I know basically nothing about the US Air Force or military in general, only what movies show us all the time. I just browsed through the Wikipedia page on the Air Force Academy a couple of times to make this story and that's about it.  
> Second, I'm sorry I broke all of your hearts with yesterday's story! This one is nicer, I promise!  
> Also, wow, what an incredible few weeks these have been! I reached 70 stories faster than I ever thought I would. By Monday Captain Marvel will become my fandom with the most stories, and there's still almost an entire month to go! Thank you all so much for your support!  
> Anyway, as usual, I hope you'll enjoy!

Carol was standing in the middle of the courtyard, hands in the pockets of her leather jacket. The ceremony was about to begin, and that thought alone made Carol sigh. Twenty years ago it was them celebrating the end of their training. Every time her eyes fell on a building in the campus, memories erupted in her mind, some she thought had been gone forever. But this courtyard, this was where everything had started.

* * *

  
  
They'd been woken up so early Carol had gotten dressed half-asleep, and in hindsight, she might have forgotten to put on her socks. The new recruits had been aligned in the courtyard. She was smaller than almost every young man in the class, and she felt the need to square her shoulders and stand straighter, just in case it made her appear a bit taller. One after the others, each group had left with their own training officer, until only her class was left. Their training officer was late or making them purposefully waiting. Carol assumed it was the latter.

  
"Look at this class of doolies!" a man suddenly shouted as he walked past all of them, taking a good look at each cadet.

  
Carol stared up at him fiercely, not breaking eye contact. Then, the man came to stand in front of them.

  
"I have the displeasure of being your training officer this year. I can already tell that half of you won't make it past this first year. My bet is on you, you, you, you" he said as he pointed some of the guys in the line. "And the two girls."

  
Carol frowned. Well, that wasn't a very good way to motivate them. Especially since he didn't know any of them.

  
"You think I'm being mean?"

  
Carol looked back at the instructor worriedly, a burst of adrenaline passing through her brain. But he wasn't looking at her, he was looking at someone else further down the line.

  
"All of you losers I just called out! Down on the ground, now. Push-ups until I tell you to stop. Come on!"

  
Carol was hesitant at first, but when she saw some of the others cadets falling to their knees and taking the position, she hurriedly fell to the ground and imitated them.

  
"Come on, ladies! We don't have all day!"

  
Carol felt very lucky she was in good shape, because quickly, one of the men beside her couldn't push himself up anymore, and fell back on the ground with a huff.

  
"Did I tell you to stop?" the officer shouted. "Did I tell you to stop! Get up! If this was a fitness test you would have been disenrolled already!"

  
Still, one after the others, the other guys fell back on the ground, exhausted. Carol was beyond that. Her arms were burning with every inch she managed to lower herself, sweat was running uncomfortably down her face, and she could feel every muscle in her back, belly, and legs screaming at her. Still, she continued, slowly, one push-up at a time.

  
"Now would you look at that!" the training officer continued. "Maybe I spoke too soon!"

  
Carol frowned and wondered what he was talking about. She looked to her left. There was only one other person still doing push-ups with her. Another young woman, taller than her, with a mop of short unruly black hair over her head. Her dark skin was glistening with sweat, much like Carol imagined hers must have been.

  
"These girls are going to destroy all of you, gentlemen."

  
Carol couldn't help but smirk. She continued to push herself up and lowered herself once again. The other girl looked her way. She was visibly in pain, but still pushing her body up and down with every ounce of strength she had left. Carol tried to smile encouragingly at her.

  
"Ladies, back on your feet."

  
Carol fell on her knees with a long sigh, then pushed herself up.

  
"Now let's see if you run as good as you can do push-ups. Let's go cadets!"

  
Carol hadn't even had the time to breathe before everyone was running around the campus, and she was forced to follow.

* * *

  
  
The next morning, Carol had arrived early in the classroom. Mostly because her entire body was aching so badly that even laying still in her bed was painful. She'd taken a seat at the back of the class and had promptly fallen back asleep, forgotten to the world. She was awakened some ten minutes later, by loud laughter. She sighed and opened her eyes. She very quickly identified the source of the laughter. Two idiots standing beside a table, a third one seating on the table. They were laughing their asses off at something.

  
Carol moved slightly in her chair, hoping she could alleviate the pain in her everything when she noticed who the three idiots had been laughing about. The other girl from her class, who was fiercely trying to ignore them. Still, they insisted on trying to speak to her. Carol stood up quickly without even thinking. She picked up her backpack which she hadn't unloaded yet and put on her leather jacket once again. She almost ran down the stairs of the small theater room and stopped right in front of the three men. Then, she very loudly cleared her throat.

  
"Can you guys move over? I want to sit here."

  
They all looked down at her and chuckled.

  
"Find another seat, girly."

  
"Are you three idiots seriously going to all sit in one chair? I mean, I get that all of you combine don't even make one brain, but I don't think the chair can hold all of your dumb asses."

  
The three of them suddenly turned to her, a murderous glare in their eyes.

  
"What did you just say?"

  
"I just insulted you. Now can I have the chair? Or do I need to say it slowly? Maybe then one of you will understand."

  
Carol really hoped they were smart enough to realize that beating the crap out of her in a full classroom would not do them any good, especially on the second day of class. However, when she saw them clenching their teeth and fisting their hands, she wasn't so sure anymore.

  
"Sit down, everyone."

  
The teacher had very quickly entered the classroom. He looked up at the class and saw a wall of students standing with their back to him.

  
"I said sit down, now."

  
Finally, the three men moved away, revealing a small young woman behind them. Carol slid into the empty seat hastily, pulling all of her stuff out. The girl beside her watched her do with interest. The teacher started talking about the basics of the class and Carol turned quickly to the other girl with a smile.

  
"I hope you didn't mind me saving you from those three."

  
"No, actually," the other girl whispered back, "Thanks. I really didn't know what to say anymore."

  
"Yeah, well, we're the only two girls in the squadron, we better stick together."

  
The other girl agreed with a smile, and Carol desperately tried to ignore the small flutter of her heart. Because that girl was absolutely breath-taking, and that could only mean heaps of trouble for Carol.

  
"I'm Carol," she said, holding out a hand discreetly.

  
"Maria," the other girl replied, taking her hand.

  
Carol thought she'd imagined the strange electricity running through her when their skins had touched.

* * *

  
  
"Carol?"

  
Carol was pulled out of her memories by a hand on her shoulder. Maria was standing beside her, also wearing her captain uniform.

  
"Ceremony's about to start."

  
Carol nodded with a faint smile.

  
"I was just remembering some things."

  
She pointed to a crack in the cement.

  
"This is the exact place I was standing when I first saw you," she said.

  
Maria shook her head.

  
"More like doing push-ups. What a good way to make the entire class hate us from day one."

  
Carol sighed.

  
"It's a good thing things have relatively changed since then."

  
Carol kept her hands in the pockets of her jacket, even though she desperately wanted to take Maria's hand in hers.

  
"For the most part," she added.

  
"Come on, we'll have all the time in the world for memories once the ceremony is over."

  
The two of them walked back toward the courtyard where the ceremony was held. They took a seat in the chairs placed on the side for the visitors. There was a crowd of at least a thousand students waiting excitedly for the ceremony to begin. Carol easily spotted Monica in the crowd, who was talking with some of her friends. Carol waved her way, but Monica was so absorbed in her conversation she didn't notice. She lowered her hand and stuffed it back in her pocket.

  
"Well, at least she has friends to celebrate with," Maria noted.

  
"And parents who proudly came to see her," Carol added.

  
Maria sighed.

  
"Can you believe the last time we came here she was the one in the chairs and we were over there."

  
"It's crazy. Next thing you know she's going to be promoted to captain, and then she's going to come work for SHIELD, and then we'll see each other all the time."

  
"You can't be sure she's going to become a SHIELD agent."

  
"Seriously? She's top of her class, the captain of the female basketball team, with a recommendation from the two of us and Fury? She's as good as hired already."

  
Maria sighed.

  
"Now wouldn't you like having her around all day?"

  
"Can you blame me? I've missed our Lieutenant Trouble."

  
"Yeah, I've missed her too."

  
Carol chuckled, and Maria looked at her confusedly.

  
"Now she's a real Lieutenant though! Well, Second Lieutenant."

  
Maria laughed as well.

  
"Four years of grueling training just to be demoted from her rank. She's not going to like that!"


End file.
